A new analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that between mid-2009 and 2011, influences from abroad were reported to have contributed to religious hostilities or restrictions in 122 of 198 countries, or 62% of all the countries and territories studied.*

Social hostilities involving religion can cross international borders, as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and their aftermath made clear. More recent examples include the violent street protests that broke out in several Muslim-majority countries in early 2006 after a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005, as well as rioting in northern India in 2009 after a group of Sikh radicals murdered a leader of a minority sect in a Sikh temple in Vienna, Austria, in 2009.

Government restrictions on religion also can have cross-national impacts or influences. In 2010, for instance, the governments of Singapore, Indonesia and several other countries limited at least some activities of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, reportedly in deference to China, which continues to ban the movement. And in 2012, a Saudi Arabian journalist who had been accused of blasphemy by Saudi authorities was extradited to Saudi Arabia by the Malaysian government.

The most common kinds of influences, in descending order of prevalence, were: tensions over the movement of people (primarily migrants) across international borders; the alleged spread of religious extremism; efforts by governments to influence religious affairs in other countries; religion-related terrorism with cross-border support or impacts; hostile reactions to events that happened or are alleged to have happened in other countries; and religion-related war or armed conflict. See table above. (Read the full report.)

* The analysis was written by Brian J. Grim, Senior Researcher and Director of Cross-National Data, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Research assistance was provided by Angelina Theodorou, Research Assistant, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

As of mid-2010, government restrictions on religion were high or very high in most of the countries that experienced the political uprisings known as the Arab Spring in late 2010 and early 2011 according to a new report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. In Tunisia – where the uprisings began – government restrictions increased from the high category as of mid-2009 to the very high category as of mid-2010 (an increase of more than two points). In Egypt – where the violence spread shortly after – government restrictions already were in the very high category; still, the country’s score on the Government Restrictions Index edged slightly higher, from 8.6 in mid-2009 to 8.7 in mid-2010. And in Yemen – where violence erupted almost simultaneously with the uprising in Egypt – government restrictions on religion rose from the high category (6.4) as of mid-2009 to the very high category (7.0) as of mid-2010.

Five of the seven major religious groups monitored by the study – Jews, Christians, Buddhists, adherents of folk or traditional religions, and members of other world religions – experienced four-year highs in the number of countries in which they were harassed by national, provincial or local governments, or by individuals or groups in society. (See Harassment of Specific Groups in the Sept. 2012 Pew Forum report, Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion.) In the year ending in mid-2010, government or social harassment of Christians was reported in 111 countries, of Jews in 68 countries, of other world religions – including Sikhs, ancient faiths such as Zoroastrianism, and newer faiths such as Baha’is, Scientologists and Rastafarians – in 52 countries, of members of groups that practice folk or traditional religions in 26 countries, and of Buddhists in 15 countries. Muslims were harassed in 90 countries and Hindus faced harassment in 16 countries – also more countries than in the previous year, though not four-year highs.

The average level of social hostilities involving religion (SHI = 4.1) among the countries where government policies or actions limit conversion from one religion to another is more than 2.5 times higher than the average level of social hostilities among countries with no government limits on conversion (1.6), as shown in the chart below. As noted in previous Pew Forum studies on religious restrictions, higher scores on the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) are associated with higher scores on the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) and vice versa. This means that, in general, it is rare for countries that score high on one index to be low on the other. On average - each type of government restriction monitored by the Sept. 2012 Pew Forum study has an association with higher social hostilities, not lower.

90% of governments (18 of 20) in the Middle East and North Africa limit religious literature or broadcasting, including 55% (11) that limit religious content on the Internet. Worldwide, the new report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that restrictions on religious literature and broadcasting have been rising steadily in recent years. The number of countries that limit religious literature and broadcasting rose from 67 in 2007 to 86 in 2010, while the number of countries whose governments do not restrict religious literature and broadcasting fell from 130 to 111 over the same period. This trend is part of what the report describes as a “rising tide” of restrictions on religion around the world.